The Life I never had
by Grey Prince
Summary: Rewritten! SemiAU. Dudley's daughter is a witch, and he doesn't know what to do. He enlists the help of his cousin. OOC!Dudley...SLASH! Will be HPDM! Rating may change.


Dudley Dursley woke up to a strange high-pitched giggling coming from down the hallway. He walked over to the source and stopped in the doorway - the giggling was coming from his daughter, who was playing in a bathtub that looked to be filled with ominous light-yellow goo.

"Aria, what is that?" Dudley asked, not quite sure that he wanted the answer.

"It's vanilla pudding! I dreamed about it, and when I woke up to look and see, it was here! Isn't that wicked?"

"Er," Dudley started to panic at this point, "sure. Why don't we get this mess cleaned up, and then we can get cleaned up to go to your grandmother's house?"

Aria made a face.

"But daddy, she doesn't like me. She gives me funny looks every time we go over there. Can we PLEASE go play in the park instead?"

Dudley paused for a moment.

"Why would she not like you?"

"She said I look too much like that flower person and that I have to be bad because nobody that had green eyes was ever good."

At this, she started to cry. Dudley picked her up.

"It's alright, I won't make you go to her house anymore."

Aria sniffed and looked at him.

"Promise?"

Dudley nodded. Aria hugged him.

"Daddy? Do we have an uncle Harry?"

Dudley blanched.

Harry Potter looked around the band room with a grin plastered on his face.

"You guys know what today is, don't you? It's Friday - that means playing quizzes! Isn't that exciting?"

The entire class let out a groan.

"Oh, don't sound _too_ excited. They're easy - if you've been practicing, and we all practice at least a half an hour a night, don't we?"

Most of the class fidgeted.

"...You guys are LAME. Brass, go with Mr. Eduarde; woodwinds are with me."

Half of the class walked out of the room with the longhaired man, most muttering under their breath.

"Alright - let's start with flutes--"

Harry was cut off as an owl flew into the room through an open window. He took the letter off of its leg and quickly scanned over it.

He paled when he had finished. "Class dismissed," he muttered, shaking his head.

"We'll have to finish this another day."

_Oh gods_, thought Harry, _this can't be good._

Meanwhile, at the Dursley residence, chaos was reigning. Dudley had called his mother to yell at her for isolating his only daughter, and she hung up the phone to walk over to the house and give him a piece of her mind. They were in the middle of a yelling match when a very confused Harry apparated into the living room.

Petunia shrieked, Dudley jumped a bit, and Aria's eyes widened.

"What is this freak doing here," Petunia yelled, "AND in the middle of a respectable neighborhood, to boot!"

Dudley slapped her.

"Listen, I've had enough. I told him to come here, and I don't want you to say another thing about it. As a matter of fact, I want you to leave. I've had enough of you degrading my daughter, and if you had even one ounce of intelligence, you would have noticed that Harry was a decent person."

Petunia huffed indignantly before stomping out of the house.

Harry looked on with wide eyes at his cousin. They had started talking more when Dudley married Gabrielle Delacour, and even became something akin to friends when she died, but he never thought that Dudley would openly go against his mother like he had.

Aria stood there silent for a few moments, just observing this stranger.

"Uncle Harry?"

Harry whirled around to face the small girl.

"Yes?"

Aria squealed in delight.  
"I knew you were real!"

She ran up to him and hugged his legs, causing him to nearly topple over onto the carpet. Harry looked to Dudley in question.

"Dudley, is she...?"

Dudley nodded.

Harry turned back to the small red-haired girl and stuck out his hand. "I'm Harry Potter."

She giggled and took his hand. "Aria Gabriella Dursley."

Later that night, Harry and Dudley were talking in the kitchen.

"Harry, I have no idea what to do. I was expecting this, but I have no experience in dealing with a magical child. I mean, what do I do? What _can_ I do? How does she get into a school? What if--"

Harry cut him off with a bark of laughter.

"Dudley," he said, trying to stop laughing, "calm down. She's what, four? She'll get an invitation to Hogwarts when she's 11, and that will take care of her schooling. I can get her books when that happens, but until that happens, just treat her like any normal child. I can see if there are any primary schools that she can attend in the meantime, just to help control the wandless magic that she has a tendency to do."

Dudley nodded, still trying to take everything in.

"Tomorrow, I can take you both to Diagon Alley, and we can look around for something that might help. I needed to go there for some things anyway."

"Alright. Er, I hate to ask it, but can we stay at your house for a few days? My mother is going to be back with reinforcements, and I'm afraid she might do something drastic to Aria. I wanted to sell this house anyway, but I don't know where we would move if I did."

Harry nodded.

"I know the perfect spot. It's in a half-wizard, half-muggle community, and it's not far from my house. Do you want to look at that tomorrow when we go to Diagon Alley?"

"Yes, please."

**End chapter 1**

Note: This is kind of a re-post. I started this story 2 years ago, but then I lost inspiration for it. I had forgotten what I had written until I got a review asking me to continue it. I read over the short first chapter, decided it SUCKED, and re-wrote it. I like this one a lot better...it flows better because the syntax is actually grammatically correct. GO FIGURE.

Thank you **Kate **and **PeachDancer82 **for reviewing this and helping me to get over my writer's block.

Oh - and a thing that I couldn't figure out how to fit in this chapter - the reason that Harry is surprised that Aria knows him is that Harry's never actually BEEN to Dudley's house. Harry lives pretty far away from them, and communicates either via phone or owl. When Dudley married Gabrielle, he realized that magic isn't all that bad (even though it was kind of forced upon him - Gabrielle can be pretty scary when she's angry. She's a quarter Veela.) and, upon her insistence, started talking to Harry. Dudley realized that Harry isn't all that bad, and Harry forgave him for being a total prat earlier on in his life.

Yes, I do realize that Harry could have apparated to Dudley's house at any time, but there was also the Petunia and Vernon factor - they live very close to Dudley, and he didn't want to be the cause of a feud.


End file.
